Talking to Paul Taylor is always fun. He's down to earth, enthusiastic, and he's a good sport about answering those questions artists undoubtedly hate but we writers have to ask about analyzing the process. He has been riding the ups and downs and taking the curveballs that the music industry has been throwing with a big dose of positive energy and creativity that is really evident on his new release, Prime Time. We chatted shortly after I got to see him with Marion Meadows and Warren Hill as the Gentlemen of the Night tour threw a party for some rain soaked but enthusiastic fans at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival.

SmoothViews (SV): Yesterday was your release date. How did it go?
Paul Taylor (PT): I'm very happy, very excited when a new CD comes out. It looks like it's top 10 in downloads for jazz on iTunes and Amazon too.

SV: I think it's so great that you can buy your music in your pajamas at home when the impulse hits you instead of having to get in the car and go searching all over town for it.
PT: I do think that's cool, but on the other side I was trying to get the actual CD in Las Vegas, where I live, and I have yet to find it. It's disheartening that CD’s are becoming a lost breed but in other parts of the country people are getting it.

SV: People do still want CD’s and I see big lines at the merchandise tents at live gigs. It's just hard to find the ones that aren't big top 40 hits. I remember driving all over town trying to find something by you, or the Rippingtons, or Acoustic Alchemy and nobody had it and that was back in the late 90s back before online sales.
PT:  The sales at shows are the alternative, I think, and it's special to buy one after a show especially when you can get it signed.

SV: You're nine CD's in and 15 years which I find totally hard to believe, it doesn't seem like that long ago when On The Horn came out ?
PT: I'm blessed and I'm glad to be in the ballgame at this point, for sure.

SV: Yeah, we've been through just one big change after another in all the aspects of the business and it takes a lot of persistence and strength to keep your head above water through it all.
PT:  It's very challenging. I played in one city a few weeks ago and I basically just made enough to pay for the band and management commissions and not much for myself. When that happens you really have to love what you're doing and be committed to it. Just relying on CD sales when the live gigs get lean can get tough, but then other gigs will do really well so it's just a tradeoff.

SV: Do you think it has become harder for a working musician to survive financially now than it was in the past without having to get a "daytime job?"
PT: I think so. Since I am recording and releasing CD's and my wife works as well, we have been able to keep the boat afloat. But unless you have a steady gig or do other things - like in Vegas you can be part of one of the big shows and survive on that - it can get kind of lean unless you do different things and have a lot of contacts to help you get gigs.

SV: You're calling this one Prime Time and a lot of the people who have been posting on FaceBook and iTunes are saying it's your best. You said in the press release that you are really excited about it. Tell me what's different about it.
PT: My last one, Burnin', was more of a concept CD. I played mostly on the tenor sax, which I haven't recorded with prior to that, so coming into this one I wanted to get back into my main axes, which are alto and soprano. I got back with the producer that I worked with on my first two albums (On The Horn and Pleasure Seeker) and a few other ones, Dino Esposito. I also worked with some new producers, The Heavyweights, so there is a little bit of the old and a little bit of the new. In doing that I upped the level of the writing and production. I got back into my core sound and really fine tuned the songs. Each song hits home for the vibe it has, so I do think this is my best one.

SV: I was thrilled to see you hooking back up with Dino for most of the songs because I love the work you've done with him. Pleasure Seeker is still one of my favorites from you, it was really ahead of its time too. When the two of you collaborate you always come  up with something that is really contemporary and off the beaten path.
PT: That sums it up right there, that's what we try to do. I've worked with him for a long time, we have a really good chemistry together and evidently it shows in the music we do.

SV: You're also working with some people that you haven't recorded with before, but your fans probably know one of them very well. How did you connect with The Heavyweights?
PT: I learned about them a couple of years ago when they did a record with Wayne Brady, who had a hit with a song called "Ordinary." I really like that album. When it was time to start on this project my manager, Andi Howard, started talking about some people I might want to work with and their name came up. I did a couple of tracks with them and I was totally blown away with their talent and songwriting skills. I didn't even put it together at first that one of them was with the group All-4-One that did "I Swear" back in the 90's.

SV: That would be Jamie Jones who has a very nice solo vocal on this CD, co-wrote the other vocal, and does a really cool chant vocal on "Laronda," which is one of my favorite songs.
PT: I was really fortunate to get to work with them and I couldn't be happier working with this combination of producers.

SV: They brought in a female vocalist I wasn't familiar with who has a real good groove too.
PT: Her name is Andrea Olsen, she's a new talent. When I first heard the song I was blown away by the lyrics and the melody line. I didn't have any hand in writing it but when I heard it I knew it belonged on the CD so I did my part on it and it really came out well.

SV:  So they had the track down and you put the sax on it?
PT: They had a demo version so I did my sax part and they redid some things to personalize it.

SV: It's got to feel good to be able to bring a new talent to your audience. It reminds me of when Boney put this new female vocalist named Ledisi on his CD a while back and now she is one of the biggest names out there.
PT: I hope that happens for her as well, it would be great to be a springboard for new talent.

SV: It ups their game to be able to get on an album with a name artist and it brings some variety to your work too. With Jamie Jones everyone remembers the hit single but "Can't Nobody" is a different type of vocal for him, more of a neo-soul thing, then he totally changes approaches and gives us this light, breezy thing on "Laronda." 
PT: That's it exactly. The album has a lot of facets to it. There are some neo-soul elements and I love that sound, and there's the contemporary jazz element, and some chill too. It's always good to leave a crack in the door for crossover appeal because that brings a new audience in.

SV: “Push to Start” is one of the catchiest songs you've ever done. You co-wrote it with Dino and when you did that live in Jacksonville it was impossible to sit still even with umbrellas and ponchos. It defines the word infectious.
PT: I wanted to up my game and this is an example, it's one of my favorites on the album. It definitely has that joyful, positive feel to it. That is one of the few songs I have done that is in a major key, again I was trying something different. I had the melody and Dino and I started working around it and it wrote itself from there. I love the melody and it's something different from a lot of what is out there. I think that as far as smooth jazz now, it's been unofficially deregulated so why not try some different things.

SV: Speaking of upbeat and happy and just plain fun tell me about the song "Laronda" because you found it then turned it into your own song with a little help from some friends didn't you?
PT: The Heavyweights brought it to me, it had a Spanish title -  “Querida” – which means “dear” and it was written for someone. I loved it and I suggested that we change a couple of things around, which we did. The main thing was I wanted to change the lyrics and dedicate it to my wife, Laronda, since the original lyrics were in the same syllables and rhymes. I just changed that, then Jamie rewrote the lyrics a little bit to reflect that. My wife is a very upbeat person, she has a lot of energy and she's a little spunky, and I've dedicated a lot of my records to her. I wanted to do a song for her that wasn't sappy, but was upbeat and really cool, because that is how she is.

SV: I like that. A song doesn't have to be sappy to be romantic, it should represent the person you're being romantic about. I haven't met her but hearing that song makes you think she's somebody you'd like to meet and hang out with.
PT: Exactly, represent who the person is with the mood of the song. I'm glad I could do that with this one.

SV: I have to askabout the cover song because it's so different from the standard smooth jazz cover songs. You recorded your take on Kings Of Leon's "Use Somebody" and made it a Paul Taylor song.
PT: I heard it a lot when it came out and was getting so much play and I really loved it. I like to do covers not for the sake of doing a cover, but because I love the song. I wanted to flip it and take a different approach to doing it, so we did it more as a ballad. I think we hit a home run with that as far as keeping the integrity of the song but bringing it into my style.

SV: And it was a rock song with top 40 credentials. You see a lot on message boards and websites where jazz people, not just the purist snobs but the contemporary and smooth jazz fans, put down pop music, especially top 40 and rock. When you came here with Gentlemen of the Night you opened the set with Black Eyed Peas "I Got A Feeling" and you were singing it on vocorder. I was so happy because that is such a cool song and it set the mood that this wasn't going to be some kind of serious sit down thing, it was gonna be fun.
PT: They are one of my favorite groups and I love a lot of their songs. I even play that song when I do my solo shows, a lot of times as an encore just to do something fun and get people dancing. We decided to use it as the opener for the Gentlemen shows. It's so fun to do, and we like to mix it up and bring in a lot of different flavors to make a show out of it and keep it interesting for everybody. All of us have our own personalities and we want to show that and make it so people don't know what's coming next.

SV: Was “Horizon” your first collaboration with Steve Oliver on one of your CD’s? I know you did some work on his first solo album and I'm so glad the two of you are hooking up.
PT: It is the first time I've had him do a guest shot on one of mine. I played on two songs on his first CD, First View. I was on “Happy Feet” and “Highway One.” I was thinking of who I could have as a guest artist and Steve came to mind because the song fit his style. We put our parts down and I told him to just go with what he wanted to do and he knocked it out of the park.

SV: You've been doing some live gigs with him too, haven't you?
PT: Yes. We did our first gig together in Palm Springs for an event Michael Paulo put together and it turned out really well, then we got to do the big KSBR concert – I played on one of his songs and played on one of mine. We really want to do some more shows together so hopefully that will happen.

SV: You are doing your solo shows and touring with Marion Meadows and Warren Hill in the Gentlemen of the Night package tour. How did you end up in this one.
PT: I always feel honored when I'm invited to do package tours. I've been fortunate enough to be part of Norman Brown's Summer Storm a couple of times, and the Groovin' For Grover tour. This was Marion Meadows' brainstorm. Last year it was Marion, Michael Lington and me. This year Michael Lington wanted to go in another direction so we added Warren Hill. We're having a lot of fun “saxing it up” as they say.

SV: Is it different to be up there with other sax players than when the headliners play different instruments?
PT: It's a beautiful thing. It can be challenging to stage as far as mixing the sound goes because we are all playing the same instrument but whoever is taking the lead has to be in the foreground. The bottom line is everyone wants to get heard. We're always saying “Turn me up!”

SV: I saw you guys signaling the sound guy several times when you were here.
PT: I don't want to say it's like a competition but everyone wants to be heard and we really push each other. That makes everyone really up their game every night.

SV: This show has a good mix of each of your hits, some left field songs and some really interesting covers. How do you pick the songs and figure out who is going to play when?
PT: For this one, Warren took the reins as far a putting the show together, with our input of course. We didn't want it to get bogged down in different segments. We wanted to hit our core songs and get us up there together for different parts of each others' songs so there would be a lot of interaction.

SV: When you are getting ready to do a new album do you come in with a blank slate or do you come in with an idea of what you want it to sound like, who you want to work with, and such or do you just let it flow toward you and roll with that?
PT: Pretty much a little of each. Usually more of the open slate thing, though. With this one I had a preconceived idea of what I wanted to do but halfway through I kind of changed horses in midstream because I wanted to follow my instinct and it took me in another direction. After that I went into an open slate and let it happen. I do have a couple of melodies in mind. I actually had the melody for “Push to Start” recorded on my phone recorder.

SV: So I have to take the next obvious question from what you just said. What was your preconception and how did it change as you were working?
PT: (laughs) I don't want to expound too much on that because it might be the direction I go in for the next album so I don't want to give it away too soon. I will say that I would like to do some of my own production. I'll have to see what comes up.

SV: Aaaah...a little anticipation for CD number ten now, but there is a lot to enjoy the ninth one for a good period of time before we start thinking of that!
PT: That's right. We're going to live in the moment and have fun with this one for a while.

SV: Thanks for spending some time with us, always wishing you success, and it looks like we will be having a lot of fun listening to this one and seeing you live over the next few months.

Paul Taylor's website is www.paultaylorsax.com
Keep up with the Gentlemen of the Night tour at www.gentlemenofthenight.com
Prime Time is available from Paul's website, iTunes, Amazon.com and other online retailers, and as we mentioned above, some of the remaining retailers that sell CDs.